SHABIHA NUR KHATOON, OP
Young singer Sonam Dash, who has clawed her way up the popularity charts, believes years of rigorous training is required to achieve success as a vocalist
Orissa not only has a great artistic and cultural heritage but it is also home to many talented artistes. There are lots of talented youngsters in the state who are trying hard to carve out a niche as a singer. Sonam Dash is one of them who discontinued her lucrative job to pursue the dreams of her mother who wanted to see her perform on the national platform. Orissa POST speaks to the singing sensation about the many sacrifices she had to make to reach her goal.
In 2010, Sonam entered the world of professional music with the ‘Voice Of Odisha’. The singer still considers it as a great breakthrough in her career as ‘Voice of Odisha’ gave her the perfect platform to explore new opportunities.
Sonam, who was born and brought up in the Silver City and completed BTech from Koustav College, had a fascination for singing since childhood. “I was interested in music from a very young age and remained glued to the idiot box whenever a singing reality show was telecast. After completing my BTech, I moved to Bangalore for my job. But I decided to quit it after six months because somewhere deep in my heart I had fallen in love with singing and wanted to do something big in the profession. It was then that ‘Voice Of Odisha’ came my way and changed my life,” she said.
After ‘Voice Of Odisha’, Sonam lent her voice to background tracks in movies like ‘Jhia Ta Bigdigala’ and ‘Galpa Nuhe Alpa Dinara’. The year 2015 was a great year for the singer as she won the Royal Stag “Make it Large” contest, outshining other competitors from the state.
Asked how enthusiastic she was about the contest, Sonam said: “I was elated to win the ‘Make it Large’ contest. Music is my passion and it was indeed a great honour to share stage with great artistes like Sukhwinder Singh, Benny Dayal and Kanika Kapoor. I believe music is the purest thing on earth and I thank Royal Stag MTV Bollyland to have given me the opportunity to prove my talent.”
Royal Stag MTV Bollyland is a series of scintillating multi-city music concerts that are a fusion of popular film tracks and heady electronic beats.
Sonam has received one of the best compliments in her life from Sukhwinder Singh. “Sukhwinder Singh praised me for my voice and it was really a great day for me to receive such a compliment from singer like him,” she said, beaming.
The talented artiste also made a mark in the Hindu music album, ‘Mera Yeh Jahan’. It was composed by Sudeep Jena and Humane Sagar was her co-singer.
Sonam is not just versatile but multi-talented too. She was once involved in both singing and anchoring and has performed in more than 2,000 live events. But for the last 10-12 months, she has been declining offers from television producers as she wants to concentrate wholly on singing.
Asked about her favourite genre of music, she said: “I want to explore myself in every genre but my favourite genre is romantic, because peoples say it suits my voice. I love Sufi too.”
Among Sonam’s favourite singers are Hariharan, Sonu Nigam, Lata Mangeskar and Shreya Ghoshal. However, rather than imitating a musical icon she believes in establishing her own identity as a singer.
Dwelling on her future endeavours, the budding singer said she wanted to visit Kolkata to learn the nitty-gritty of singing as she wants to leave no stone unturned in her pursuit of excellence.